Today's Gazette

[statefan]

I think today's Daily Gazette had more Great Dane athletic news than I've ever seen in one day's newspaper. In addition to the basketball page, there is another page including a long article "Great Danes pull together, retain America East title" with a picture of Coach Vives, and a smaller article about the baseball victory over Missouri, referred to (I'll quote for Dane 96's benefit) as "one of the biggest victories in program history"

 

The basketball page is entitled "Great Danes gathering momentum down stretch" and refers to the recent successes of the Lady Danes. Coach Patterson cites confidence, taking care of the ball and a change in defensive philosophy as reasons behind the success. She says they took a page out of Jim Boeheim's book and installed the 2-3 zone because they have the right personnel. She says "we won't press, and we won't stretch out our defense too much. We have defenders with long arms who can play the zone very well". The article goes on to define the roles of the starters and of the 6th player, Jen Schumacher. Coach Patterson also credits the scouting reports prepared by the assistants and the players efforts at studying the scouting reports.

 

The rest of the page has a lot of facts in bullet fashion, most of which those who follow the program closely already know. One I found interesting is that in our three league wins, Jon Iati has a total of three turnovers and 15 assists, having tied his season best against Hartford with 6 assists and 1 turnover.

[Dane96]

Nice report (and thanks for the plug). That 2-3 zone should be great in the playoffs. Our front line is so big for the ladies.

[AlbanyObserver]

My high school team played a 2-3 matchup zone frequently. It gave a lot of teams fits. If you are going to use it, your personnel needs to know what they are doing to make it work. I think the 2-3 matchup zone is one of the most effective defenses. It confuses the opposition because they feel like you are almost throwing a man-to-man look at them as well. Good for Trina and the coaching staff. This could be our main weapon down the stretch until someone solves it.

[professor]

They play a standard 2-3 zone! No match-up or anything tricky! They just have lengthy players so they can pack it in and use the size!

[Patch]

Straight up or Match up doesn't make a difference if they are successful with it.

 

Go Danes!!!!!